Final Blog Post- Relationship with Technology

 Technology is something that was always garnished a lot of attention. Starting with the example that I watched which is the Futurama ride at the 1964 World's fair in New York. Here we see people of all ages enjoy technology as it was theorized for the future. I am sure not one person on that ride considered the ill-effects of technology. Well with the forest road in the futurama ride we have seen deforestation become a topic of negative effects. That is the same thing with technology, it can cause these negative effects on people and the world. Not only are there negative effects of technology there are also positive aspects that it was created for. Technology has become not only misleading and an issue in many different ways, but something that is a headache for everyone.

Let's start on the negative side of things with music video of the remix of Tears For Fears. Here we saw that technology has fully captured people's lives and there is a lack of the social connection that was once had in the world. Everyone has heard the stories from their parents when there were no cellphones, so you had to go play outside and make friends. There was a different social connection back then and many studies have looked into it. The AMA Journal of Ethics performed a study where they found the exact connection between the lack of social interactions and loneliness. Even though everyone may be texting each other and sending happy face emojis they could be in a dark place behind the screen. This was another thing that was highlighted in the music video with the dark colors and unhappy faces behind the screens. It is something that is a huge problem today. 

This loneliness is not something new with technology. The term spiral of silence which I learned in the EOTO presentation and wrote about in my last blog is something similar due to the isolation it creates. The spiral of silence is the self-censorship of oneself to not fit in. This leads to the person biting their tongue but over time they will become more and more isolated and lonely. Before technology, there was never an issue with the publication of information and holding back from what you had to say. For example in the election of 1828 we saw Andrew Jackson versus John Quincy Adams in a history defining election. Here, we saw mudslinging where they would say whatever they wanted about the other candidate with no remorse. The public also did the same thing about the opposing party. Here, there was no spiral of silence to stop people from saying something out of the fear of isolation. Technology brought forth the mass hysteria of people being exiled because their post or comment online was not a centered view went viral and now they struggle every day with public opinion. 
Another side of technology is the mass media aspects that is broadcasts or social media. Mass media brings the negative part of misleading information and fake news. A deadly misleading information trio is disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation. This was my topic for the second EOTO project and the blog post highlighted how the deadly trio led to another negative impact of fake news. These outlets for media spread and alter people's minds on false information. This is one of the most problematic issues with technology and it is everywhere. Mass media though does not have all negative effects. 

Not everything in the technological field is all negative. Coming off mass media I wanted to light a positive high. I am a Sports Media major and what I do in life and continue in life is broadcasting especially in sports. Without technology, I would never be able to accomplish a career like that. That is what technology was created for. To be a spot to open up jobs and to make the world a better place. The issue is in life nothing ever can be used fully correctly and appropriately. That is why technology has taken a turn for the worse in recent years. Technology will never be the same and the internet will never be a safe place again, but as people, we do not have to add to the harm it is doing. Over time if everyone just uses the internet for what it was intended for the world of technology will go back to what it was created for originally.